Italia
by PagetPaulson
Summary: Rome, Italy.
1. Chapter 1

The poisonous smoke that filled her lungs made the fifteen year old girl close her eyes, taking in the joyful feeling it gave her. Why keep your lungs clean if you planned on dying young anyway?

Eyes fluttering open, the girl with dark eyes and blood red lipstick painted on her mouth looked around at the tourists who passed her. They were all the same; older men and women who easily resembled her parents if they were to wear capri shorts and sun visors to the weekly dinners. They hauled their children around from attraction to attraction and forced them to smile as they took their pictures.

Emily huffed.

She never understood why people came to visit Rome. It had the beautiful buildings and the ruins that drew everyone in, but what about the men who go and drink at night and tried to take advantage; the pick pocketing and drug dealing on every corner when the tourists were back in their historic hotels for the evening; the drunks who would steal the vespas that were never locked up and crash them into fire hydrants? That's all Emily ever saw.

Although she did favor the streets that others feared to go down. Maybe that's why she had such a dark view of the city.

Pushing herself off the fountain she leaned on with her elbows, the fifteen year old took one last puff of her cigarette before flicking it into the crystal clear water. She saw a mother of two with her hands on a ten year old's shoulders look to her with wide eyes, and the ambassador's daughter gave a wink before slipping her sunglasses on and falling in with the rest of the crowd.

"Cazzo," she cursed. The fifteen year old fixed the sleeve of her leather jacket and cut around a couple making out on the stairs before the Trevi Fountain to get back to the main street and meet the boys she had promised to have lunch with.

"Miss," a voice called, "can I give you a ride?"

Emily gave the old man the finger, averting from the main road and walking down an ally she knew his van was too big to fit down. She fiddled in her jacket pocket before finding another cigarette and placing it between her lips.

Emerging from one of the dark doorways the sunlight couldn't hit, another man made eyes at the beautiful brunette walking down the cobblestone. Picking a pack of matches from his pocket, the greasy haired stranger lit the match and offered it to the teen. "Light?"

Emily grinned, leaning forward and letting the older man fire up the cigarette that never fell from her lips. "Thanks," she smiled, the cigarette ending up between her fingers so she could blow the puff of smoke out.

"Come in."

She watched the older man open up the broken down door to what was most likely his home, and the teen shrugged. "Maybe next time," she winked, turning on her heel to continue down the road.

Flipping her newly cut curls over her shoulder, the teen walked back into the sunlight and made her way through the lines that were around the block for the most popular bakeries ad creameries that had opened only a few minutes before.

"Em! Cagna," the boy calling to her laughed when Emily flipped him off. "Get over here, you're late!"

Emily slipped her sunglasses up to the crown of her head and grinned at her friends, letting the boy who had called her a bitch take her into a hug. "Don't start with me, Mattie," she warned, sitting down between the two boys. "It's barely morning."

Matthew frowned. "It's two in the afternoon."

The ambassador's daughter, about to make a face at the boy she considered her best friend, felt herself jump at the warm kiss pressed just beside her ear. "Hey," the brunette nodded, letting John take her against his side as their waiter came.

"Wine, signorina?"

"Si," Emily smiled, feeling John's hand cup her hip. "Grazie."

Matthew kept his smile dormant until the waiter was gone. "You didn't even have to flash your fake this time."

"I turn sixteen in a month," the brunette girl argued, flashing a grin to the waiter when he came back to pour her glass. "Then I won't even need my fake."

"Unless you go back to the states."

Emily groaned. She had been in Italy for almost an entire year, and no matter her views on the city she was living in, nowhere in the states she'd ever been to could compare. "I'd kill myself before my mother made me move again," the teenager almost growled, swishing the wine around in the expensive glass before taking a sip.

Leaning into the beautiful girl, John nuzzled his nose underneath Emily's ear. "You ready for tonight?"

The ambassador's daughter kept her eye roll to herself as she sat up, untangling John's arm from around her waist and leaning into the table. "Yeah," she nodded, looking directly at the other boy. "It's supposed to be a good party."

"Just be careful," Matthew warned, knowing exactly the kind of trouble his friends had gotten into last time.

Emily was quick to nod her head. "No drugs," she agreed, taking a bite of her shrimp salad and pointing her fork to her best friend. "Got it."

Finishing up their lunch, the ambassador's daughter paid for the meal and let the boys go and get them a cab. As she slipped a few dollars under her napkin for the waiter as a tip, the fifteen year old looked up, her hair blowing before her eyes, and she saw a dark skinned boy walking out of the creamery across the cobblestone street. She could almost feel her jaw dropping.

She'd never seen a boy so gorgeous.

He looked around her age, and she watched with darkening eyes as he licked the dripping ice cream off of the cone in his hand.

"Em? Are you coming?"

The ambassador's daughter got herself up and slipped her glasses back over her eyes. "Calm down," she groused, her heels clicking against the cobblestone as she made her way to the cab.

Matthew looked out the door and tried to find whoever had caught Emily eye.

"Get in," she laughed, pushing her friend into the car before she slid herself in. Slamming the door, the brunette girl looked out the window to try and find the boy she'd seen in front of the creamery, cursing herself as her eyes failed to find him. She let John's hand make its way to her thigh as she leaned back, the cab taking off down the street.


	2. Chapter 2

Barely able to focus on the game she was playing with the other teenagers around, Emily shoved her friend whose lips were at the back of her neck off of her and back onto the couch she sat on. "Let me focus," she sighed, rolling her eyes as the girl to her left threw a chip into the bowl.

The other teenager glared at the back of the beautiful girl's head as he lounged back against the couch, waiting for her to finish her game.

"Aumentare." _Raise._ Emily's eyes flickered up as she threw a chip into the pile that had grown in the center of the table, watching closely to the expressions passing over the other players faces as the bets started around once more. When she saw the boy across from her hesitate, Emily quickly picked up another chip, ready to throw it in.

When the three to her left folded, the ambassador's daughter raised the pot.

John grinned, sitting straight as the brunette before him collected her winnings. "Nice," he laughed, leaning in and kissing her neck. "Let's go buy some beer."

"I'd rather vodka," Emily said to no one in particular, focusing on the money she had in her hands instead of the boy behind her.

"Fine. Get up and we'll get out of here."

Brown eyes blinking quickly as she shoved the cash into her jacket pocket, she glanced across the room to see Matthew trying his best to flirt with one of the girls he'd had a crush on for the last two parties. "Come on," she grunted, pulling John up from the couch and dragging him over toward the bedroom that was always open to whoever wanted time alone.

She laughed despite herself as John bumped his arm against the door, and she let him sit her down at the foot of the bed, her fingers at his belt loops and tugging him forward. "You get five minutes," she whispered, her hand behind his head to bring him down for a kiss.

They weren't a couple, John knew that wasn't what Emily wanted. What Emily wanted was not to feel, and for a few minutes every once in a while John was able to give that to her.

At first they had slept together just once, Emily wanting to prove to him and the others she called her friends that she wasn't who they thought she was. The ambassador's daughter always had to be pristine and proper and the perfect daughter for other girls to look up to, and when she was out of the spotlight she wanted to do everything she could to shed that image. She wasn't the mirror image of her mother like everyone wanted her to be, and because of that she lost her virginity at fifteen and was almost sent to rehab for her drinking and marijuana use just months before this exact party.

Feeling the older boy's lips trail down her neck and in between the swells of her breasts, Emily's eyes fluttered open and she sat up, pushing John off of her.

"That was barely five minutes," the other teen complained, diving back in.

Emily put a hand to his chest and shook her head. "Five minutes." She licked at the corner of her mouth and stood from the bed, letting the teenager kiss her cheek. "Let's get Mattie and go home."

John pulled her back when she went for the door and let is hand cup her ass, not able to see her eyes hardening from his spot behind her. "We can't go home alone?"

"No," she said strongly, pushing the teen off of her and leaving him in the bedroom by himself. She had her moments of falling into the other teens arms and letting him have his way with her, but she made it a point to put her foot down whenever she had the confidence to.

Seeing his friends emerge from the only bedroom in the flat they were loitering in Matthew ran his way over to them, taking Emily by the arm. "Come on," he ushered, moving them all toward the door. "Let's go."

Emily looked to her friend with concerned eyes as she let him lead her out toward the cabs, almost tripping over her own feet. "What's wrong?" Stopping her best friend from forcing her into the cab, she pushed him back against the apartment building's front door. "Stop," she ordered. "Look at me."

The teenager batted his friend's hands away.

"What's wrong?"

Hearing a commotion from the open window above them, Matthew pushed his friend against the cab and away from where the phones and bottles were falling from.

Emily watched as the glass crashed against the cobblestone, her eyes shooting up to see the dark skinned boy she'd seen at the creamery earlier that day getting pushed up against the open window.

"Come on," Matthew rushed out, shoving both of his friends in the cab and throwing money at the driver. "Tu guidi!" he yelled, ignoring Emily staring up at the boy through the cab's closed window. "Guidare!" _Drive!_


End file.
